The other day, I mentioned that I was going on a trip to Barbados. A friend of mine who knows about my green theme this year said, "For someone who's green, you sure take a lot of plane rides."
Yes, I take "a lot" of plane rides (although I really don't think 4 overseas trips a year should be categorized as "a lot"), but it's about balance. As Holter Graham says in his blog (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/find-balance.html?campaign=daylife-article), "you cannot just abandon everything and switch to a fully green lifestyle overnight."
Plus, I balance out my love of travel which may not be so green with other things that are: I try to walk to as many places as I can, or take public transportation; I have my reusable grocery bag; I take my reusable coffee mug to the coffee shop instead of getting a cup there. I request online statements; I only do full loads of laundry; I donate items to freecycle.com and other places where others can reuse them...the list is endless.
It's not so much about becoming the Total Green Person as it is about making small steps towards a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle. Here are a couple more small steps, courtesy of Holter:
- If you can't upgrade to lower-flow faucets, buy soap from this guy, justsoap.com, who uses recycled packaging, rides a bike to power his mixers, and has a tiny carbon impact in his manufacturing.
- If you can't buy a hybrid or heat your house with biodiesel, drive smoothly to lower your fuel usage and turn the thermostat down three degrees in winter—or better yet, get new digital thermostats that let you program more specifically and save energy throughout the season.
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